


I'll Bear It All For You

by agirlintheville



Series: Hulkeye Dads [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Kid Fic, M/M, Massive misuse of teddy bears, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-21 04:59:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6039148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agirlintheville/pseuds/agirlintheville
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was originally posted on tumblr for this prompt:<br/>For reasons that are up to you, the team (who know that hulkeye are a couple who live together) react to finding out that Clint and Bruce (for reasons that are up to you) sleep in separate beds.</p><p>You can see the original post <a href="http://unnaturalnoise.tumblr.com/post/109689822560/prompt-for-reasons-that-are-up-to-you-the-team">here</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Bear It All For You

**Author's Note:**

> Not even gonna apologize for the title...it makes me laugh :)

When Steve walked into the kitchen, he found everyone already sitting around the large kitchen table. He sniffed the air automatically. He couldn’t help it…it was now his conditioned response to mornings. Mornings were when Clint, Bruce, and their six year old daughter, Beth would wake up early and cook a massive breakfast for all of the inhabitants of the house. Beth would be standing on a stool by the counter, helping Bruce mix pancake batter, cut fruit, and pour juice, while Clint would be at the stove, managing the six burner cooktop with ease and grace. All three would usually be singing along to whatever music they had requested that Jarvis play.

But there were no delicious smells in the air, there was no music, no singing. When he took a second look around the kitchen, he realized that the Banner-Barton family wasn’t there. Instead, it was Tony hunched around his coffee, scowling at the table top, Natasha munching a piece of dry toast, and Sam and Thor sharing a newspaper quietly.

Steve frowned and asked, “What’s going-"

“Shh!!” Tony whispered at him without looking up.

“But where’s-"

“Steve, shush. Bruce is sleeping,” Sam interrupted.

He blinked and looked out past the kitchen. He could easily see Bruce’s curled up form on one of the couches in the connecting room. The TV was on a muted black and white movie, and several books lay on the floor, including one that looked like it had dropped out of the scientist’s tired hands.

Steve frowned again and moved to take his usual seat by Sam. Natasha slid him a banana and a glass of juice. Steve looked sadly at the meager breakfast and leaned back to look towards Bruce again. Then, he whispered, “Why is Bruce sleeping on the couch?”

“Don’t know,” Tony whispered. “Sam came down and found him there. Seems kind of rude to wake the man up and demand breakfast, you know?”

Before Steve could reply, Clint stumbled in the kitchen. “Hey, have you guys seen-"

“Shhh!” Clint stepped back at the collective hissing, his hands raised defensively. He looked at Steve, and Steve pointed to Bruce on the couch.

Clint looked over at Bruce, and sighed. He quietly walked over to the couch, and crouched to gently shake Bruce awake. They all watched as Bruce jerked awake and leaned away from Clint’s concerned touch. They couldn’t hear what Clint said to him, but Bruce looked over at his teammates and immediately dropped his eyes, his cheeks turning pink.

Clint continued to speak, but Bruce shook his head quickly, leaning down to gather his books. Clint raised a hand to Bruce’s shoulder, still talking quietly. But as soon as he made contact, Bruce jerked away. They could hear him sharply say, “Clint, I said no.” Clint dropped his hands hurriedly and looked away. Bruce looked up at them again, and they watched his face twist in misery. Without saying another word, he grabbed the last of his books and shuffled out the living room.

Steve began to rise out of his chair, but Thor grabbed his wrist and shook his head silently. They watched Clint get to his feet and walk out of common room in the opposite direction as Bruce. Steve looked at his team, expressions of shock and surprise on their faces. Clearing his throat, he said, “Okay. Well, I can whip up a mean bowl of cereal if everyone is okay with that.”

~<>~

For the rest of the day, they all tried to corner Clint and Bruce to find an explanation for that morning. But both men were used to their friends’ nosiness. After all, it had been the team’s interference that had gotten them together in the first place. Thor was still proud of the fact that his idea of locking Clint and Bruce in a closet together had actually worked and had gotten them to talk about their feelings. But this time, Bruce had barricaded himself in his lab. Since he was wearing a full hazmat suit, no one wanted to go in there and interrupt him. Meanwhile, Clint had Beth as his cover. Claiming that they were taking a Daddy/Daughter day, they left the Tower in the morning and didn’t return until it was Beth’s bedtime.

The next morning, Steve walked into the kitchen to find his team dejectedly eating cold pizza slices. Sighing, he sat down next to Sam. Sam sympathetically rubbed his back, while handing him a slice of cold pepperoni. “Sorry, Cap.”

“I mean, I’m sure one of us could make breakfast. It can’t be that hard,” Natasha mumbled around her coffee.

“That’s not the point, though. Clint and Bruce make breakfast. It’s a thing. It’s our thing,” Steve slumped in his chair.

“Okay,” Tony put down his coffee determinedly. “Reasons to kick your husband out of bed. And…go.”

“Affair?” Steve guessed.

Natasha scoffed, “Clint and Bruce? Please.”

Sam went next. “Um…snoring?” As everyone stared at him, he raised his hands defensively. “Hey, I just watched a True Crime episode where the wife killed her husband with a hatchet because he snored so loud. She put up with it for 14 years and then finally snapped.”

“That’s…no. Pretty sure it’s not snoring,” Tony shook his head. “What about nightmares?”

The group paused. They all had experienced it. Terrible, soul sucking nightmares that you couldn’t wake from. Nightmares that caused you to lash out at everything just so that you could be free of the darkness. Nightmares that sometimes made you a danger to whoever shared your bed.

Thor nodded slowly, “That is a reasonable assumption. Bruce did not look well after last week’s fight against the mutated teddy bears.”

Steve shuddered, as Thor’s words brought the memory of last week’s battle. At first, the only thing that had seemed unusual about the stuffed toys was that they were walking around. New Yorkers had been utterly enchanted by them. It wasn’t until a child had picked one up that everyone had realized that the teddy bears were poised to attack with real claws and fangs. In order to save the city, they had been forced to send to Hulk in to rip the bears apart. It had been horrifying.

“I’ll take armed aliens any day over that. I never want to see anything like that,” Sam said, and everyone murmured their agreement.

“See anything like what?” Clint appeared in the doorway, holding a sleepy Beth in his arms. He frowned at them, “What are you guys eating?”

“Leftover pizza. There was no breakfast,” Steve said, looking at Clint with big sad eyes.

Clint snorted, “So no one else in the house knows how to make eggs or pancakes?”

“They just taste better when you make them,” Natasha said as Clint moved to put Beth on one the stools at the kitchen counter. “Anyway, we were talking about Hulk and the teddy bear thing last week.”

“Hulk?” The loud, frightened squeak had everyone looking towards the little girl who was clutching a small teddy bear in her arms.

Clint stroked her dark hair soothingly, “No, it’s okay. No one’s going to hurt Sir Teddy.” Above Beth’s head, Clint sent a glare towards Natasha.

“But Tasha said…” Her small voice began to tremble.

“No, it’s okay. Sir Teddy is right here. You are right here, and I am right here. And we’re all going to be just fine. Okay? Remember what I told you?”

Beth took a deep breath, and said, “Papa doesn’t want to hurt Sir Teddy, and you won’t let Papa hurt Sir Teddy.”

“Exactly.”

As Clint continued to comfort the little girl, Steve saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked sharply towards the kitchen door, and saw Bruce looking at his husband and daughter sadly. Realizing that someone was watching him, he turned quickly and met Steve’s eyes. For a second, they stared at each other and then Bruce turned and left. When Steve turned his eyes back to Clint and Beth, he found Clint watching him. Steve raised his eyebrow in question, but Clint merely dropped his eyes to his daughter and asked her, “How about we whip up some pancakes for these hungry heroes?”

After breakfast and extended digesting period (Steve may have eaten too much, but he wanted to show his appreciation to Clint for making breakfast. He also may be addicted to Clint’s homemade raspberry pancake syrup), Steve went down to the gym to start his daily workout. He stopped in the doorway of the communal gym, surprised. Bruce didn’t usually come down here to workout. The doctor enjoyed a good run, and would sometimes join Steve and Sam in the mornings, but he rarely used the equipment in the gym. Yet here he was determinedly attacking the punching bag.

Steve walked over to him slowly, making sure that Bruce knew he was there, but the other man didn’t look up. Bruce’s fists hit the bag rhythmically, steadily, his form practiced and fluid. It wasn’t until he got closer that Steve realized that Bruce was hitting without any protection on his hands. Sighing, Steve continued to move closer until he was able to catch Bruce’s hand in mid jab.

Bruce tensed for a brief second and then immediately relaxed in Steve’s grip. When Steve slowly let go, Bruce turned away, panting and staring at his raw knuckles.

“Bruce?”

“She’s afraid of me.” The words came out sudden and bitter. Bruce walked over to sit on nearby bench.

Steve joined him and dangled his hands between his knees. “Beth?” Bruce nodded, still staring and rubbing at his hands.

“Why?”

Bruce sighed, “She knows that I’m the Hulk.” Steve nodded, remembering that Clint and Bruce hadn’t wanted Beth to grow up with any secrets. They had shown her Bruce’s transformation, and she had loved her giant green Papa as much as she loved her slight, curly haired Papa. Steve frowned as Bruce looked at him expectantly.

“But she’s known that for a while now. Did something happen to make her afraid of him?”

“No, you don’t understand,” Bruce shook his head slowly. “She’s afraid of me.”

Seeing that Steve still didn’t understand, Bruce continued. “She knows that I’m the Hulk. She thinks that whatever Hulk does is because I’m the one doing it. You know? She thinks it’s me, just big and green and with a different name. So when she saw footage of the teddy bear fight-"

“Wait,” Steve interrupted, “she saw video of us fighting the teddy bears? How?”

Bruce sighed again, “No, she saw video of Hulk ripping apart teddy bears. The video popped up while we were watching cartoons online and she pressed play before we could stop her.”

Steve winced. They had all watched the footage afterwards, and it had been unnerving watching Hulk pull apart the little adorable teddy bears. It definitely hadn’t been the best PR for them since the fangs and claws of the bears weren’t visible in the video.

Bruce continued, “Since she knows that I’m Hulk, she thought that I was deliberately killing Sir Teddy’s family. She freaked out. Gathered all her toys and barricaded herself in her room. Clint managed to calm her down, but she began carrying her teddy bear around with her and didn’t want to come near me. Then she started having nightmares. Usually, she’d come sleep with us after a bad dream, but she didn’t want to get in our bed if I was there. So Clint would go sleep in her bed, but it was too small, so I went to our couch, but I couldn’t sleep there because…because my family was down the hallway and I couldn’t go near them, so I would go to the common area, and…”

Bruce suddenly stopped the flood of words, and put his face in his hands.

Steve said carefully, “This has been going on since last week?”

At Bruce’s nod, Steve sighed, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Bruce looked up at him, “She’s afraid of me, Steve. I’ve never had anyone been afraid of me before. Afraid of Hulk, yes. But of me? We didn’t know what to do.”

Steve closed his eyes as Bruce buried his face again. Images of the teddy bear battle flickered across his closed eyelids. He saw again the teddy bears swarming Hulk trying to pierce his skin with their claws and fangs. He saw the green giant flinging them away, and finally tearing their heads off one by one while yelling ‘Bad Teddies.’ He saw them surrounding him, leaving the rest of the Avengers in order to conquer the biggest threat.

“Wait, that’s it!” He blinked his eyes open and met Bruce’s confused glance.

“What’s it?”

“She didn’t see the claws and fangs right? All she saw was Hulk being surrounding by teddy bears and becoming angry?” When Bruce nodded in agreement, he smiled, “So what if she sees Hulk being surrounded by teddy bears and enjoying it? It might help her get over her fear.”

“You want to surround Hulk with lots of teddy bears only a week after he destroyed lots of teddy bears” Steve grinned and nodded. Bruce frowned back, “That…that doesn’t sound like a good plan.”

“Well, it’s either that or you’re sleeping on the couch for the rest of your life.”

Bruce rolled his eyes and sighed, “Alright fine. Let’s go talk to the team.”

~<>~

Tony leaned against the doorframe, staring into the living room. “This is one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen. And I still remember all the crazy stunt videos people posted in the late nineties.” Next to him, Steve crossed his arms and silently agreed.

Bruce and Steve had shared their plan, and everyone immediately decided that it wasn’t a good plan. But no one could think of anything else. So Tony had ordered three thousand teddy bears from FAO Schwartz. The woman on the phone had hung up on him when she heard the request, so he then called Toys R Us. The man on the phone had hung up on him after Tony asked to have the toys delivered the next day. So they called Pepper, who after hearing the entire story, told them that it wasn’t a good plan. But she still managed to get the CEO of Toys R Us on the phone, and now there were three thousand teddy bears of all colors piled up in their living room. Bruce and Thor were standing right in the middle of it all.

“This is going to go so badly,” Bruce muttered as he looked around at all the bears. Thor patted him on the shoulder as he also looked around with disbelieving eyes. Natasha joined Steve and Bruce at the door. “Okay, I think we’re ready. Sam, Clint and Beth are upstairs, waiting for the elevator. Thor has his hammer in case we need to control the Hulk. Tony, you have your armor on standby?” At Tony’s nod, she turned to Steve, “And you have your shield? You’ll need to cover me and Sam in case we need to get Clint and Beth out of here.”

“I have it,” Steve knelt and unzipped the case that held his shield.

“Okay,” Natasha took a deep breath. “Bruce, we’re ready.” Thor took a few steps back to give Bruce some room. Behind them, Steve heard the elevator begin to move. He barely caught Bruce’s low mutter of ‘These are my life choices?’ before Bruce began to grow and swell. Steve had seen Bruce transform into the Hulk so many times that he had lost count but every time he saw it, Steve was utterly transfixed by the change. He knew that Bruce still saw the Hulk as a failure, but Steve always saw him as an incredible miracle of science.

Hulk snorted through his nostrils as he looked around at the teddy bears. Thor grasped the handle of his hammer when Hulk picked one up to look more closely at it. Then the elevator doors opened. Everyone turned to stare as Sam, Clint and Beth exited. Beth was in the middle of telling a story, holding on to Clint’s hand, when she caught sight of the Hulk with the teddy bear in his hands. Her scream was short and piercing and Hulk jerked back violently, stumbling over the bears and falling on top of them.

Quickly, Clint picked Beth up as Natasha and Sam moved in front of them. Steve raised his shield as Tony’s armor flew towards him, assembling itself around him. Thor’s hammer whistled through the air as it began to swing.

Dazed, Hulk raised his head to look at all of them. Then, he looked at the teddy bears. And he began to laugh. The great booming sound echoed around the room as they all looked at each other, trying to determine if they could relax their positions.

“Daddy?” Everyone turned to Beth as the Hulk continued to laugh. “Daddy, why is Papa laughing?”

“I, uh, I don’t know, honey,” Clint said as he motioned for Sam and Natasha to move away. Sam moved readily, but Natasha scowled at him and stayed by his side as he and Beth moved forward into the living room.

Hulk continued to laugh, almost wheezing at this point. “Hey. Hey, Papa Hulk, what’s so funny?” Clint called out to him, trying to make himself heard about the laughter.

Through his laughter, Hulk managed to get out, “Teddies soft. Teddies not sharp. Good teddies!”

Steve giggled and immediately clapped his hand over his mouth. Thor shot Steve a grin as he put his hammer down. “Yes, my strong friend. These are good teddies! Isn’t that correct, little Beth?”

Beth was staring at the Hulk whose laughter was now dying down. She looked at Thor, and then looked back at the rest of the team still gathered by the door. Then she looked at all the teddy bears. Finally, she looked back at Hulk who was now standing and holding a pink teddy bear out to her. “Good teddy,” he rumbled, “Good teddy soft. Not hurt Beth-bird.”

Slowly, she reached out with one hand to take the toy. Hulk grinned and then fell backwards on the toys again, chuckling.

Beth began to smile, “Papa! You’ll hurt the teddies!”

“No! Good teddies soft! Not hurt!”

Beth laughed and wriggled to be put down. Clint put her down in front the massive piled of teddy bears, and she waded in to join the Hulk, laughing and tossing him all the bears that she could reach.

Steve sighed and lowered his shield. He could hear Tony’s armor dismantling as Sam came up and put his arm around him. “I told everyone it was a good plan,” he said quietly to Sam. Thor was now in the teddy bear pile, tunneling under a stack of bears. Natasha was trying to tug her arm away from Clint as he tried to pull her in with him.

Sam snorted gently, “You get lucky with your plans sometimes.” He smiled at Tony who came to stand next to them. “You know, she’s going to want to keep all of these bears now. And name them.”

“Hmm. Well, I’ve been meaning to redesign anyway. How do think they’ll feel about a whole floor just for her bears? We could call it…The Bear Balace. Like palace, but with a b. You get it?”

“Yeah, got it,” Sam rolled his eyes. Kissing Steve briefly on the cheek, he moved towards the teddy bear fight that was starting.

“No, wait, how about the Bear Bastle? Or maybe…The Land O’ Bears? Isle of Bears?” Tony cut off with a yelp as Clint got him in the face with a tiger striped bear. With a war cry, Tony charged in and began to arm himself with stuffed toys. Through it all, Hulk continued to chuckle and Beth giggled with him. Steve smiled at his family, satisfied that all was right again and their mornings would continue to be delicious and filling

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it, let me know how it reads! Come hang out with me on [tumblr](http://unnaturalnoise.tumblr.com)!


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